Friday, April 4, 2014



Life for Pot – Release Nonviolent Drug Offenders
 100 Hale Rd, Zanesville, OH. 43701
 
                                      March 10, 2014 
Dear Congressman ----

Reform of our Criminal Justice System needs to be one of the primary concerns for Congress.  Our Justice is too harsh, too unevenly enforced, and too haphazard in its prosecution and sentencing.

As the Senate and the House consider and pass sentencing reform bills that will give sentencing relief to future defendants and even a select group of those presently incarcerated, this will not remedy the harshness of the penalty for many presently incarcerated who received the brunt of the excesses of our costly War on Drugs.

This is the group of non-violent drug offenders who were given sentences of Life without Parole or de facto Life without Parole for non-violent drug offenses.  These are non-violent citizens who will die in Federal Prison for offenses that will not be charged or sentenced in the same manner in the future. 
 
We are advocating for those who have no violence in their case and no violence in their past.   These individuals were harshly sentenced because they were aggressively charged with conspiracy and also exercised their sixth amendment right to trial. 
Even though these inmates are non-violent, they are typically held for years in High Security Federal Facilities simply because of the length of their sentences.  This is an egregious waste of Federal dollars and an affront to justice.

After Deputy Coles remarks to the NY Bar asking for suggestion for the problem of over incarceration, Life for Pot sent the enclosed “Suggestion” to President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole

The “Suggestion” is for a systemic or group clemency for this group. 
We would ask Congress to consider passing legislation that would grant retroactive sentencing relief to this same group of individuals.  

The war on drugs has impacted so many families in such a harsh manner that many of us will not see justice until the sentencing of Life without Parole or de facto Life without Parole for non-violent drug offenders has been rectified.
We are enclosing the Suggestion that was sent to the President and The Department of Justice.

Sincerely,

Beth Curtis
Life for Pot

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